After 6 months, Jackson County prosecutors have no decision on charges for deputy
Six months after Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said her office would look again at a 2017 shooting in which a sheriff’s deputy killed a man at a Raytown Walmart, the prosecutor’s office said it has made no decision.
Prosecutors are still reviewing whether to file criminal charges against the deputy, Lauren Michael, according to Michael Mansur, a spokesman for Baker. Mansur declined further comment.
Michael was working security at the store on May 28, 2017, when she shot and killed Sneed, who had been suspected of shoplifting. Michael told investigators that Sneed grabbed her stun gun and used it against her, and that was why she shot him.
The sheriff’s office also gave that version of events. Then-sheriff Mike Sharp awarded Michael a medal of valor for her actions. Baker did not file charges.
The shooting was brought to public attention again two years later in 2019 when Michael shot a woman who had been suspected of riding a scooter the wrong way near 40th and Main streets in Kansas City.
Again, Michael said the suspect grabbed her stun gun. The woman, Brittany Simeck, survived.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Michael with first-degree assault in the Simeck shooting. Since then, Michael has been on unpaid administrative leave from the sheriff’s office.
Sneed’s family called for the investigation into his shooting to be opened again. The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and their attorney released to the public surveillance video of the shooting.
Because investigators doubted Michael’s story and prosecutors said she wasn’t telling the truth, Baker said her office would review the Sneed case.
Defense attorney Molly Hastings, who is representing Michael in the Simeck shooting, said Michael has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in February. Hastings declined further comment.
In February, a Jackson County judge denied Hastings’ request for a change of venue. In court filings, Hastings said the criminal case should transferred to another county because “of the highly prejudicial, negative news coverage which it has received.”
A civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of Simeck in November. It claimed that Micheal used excessive force on Simek, who posed no threat to the deputy and wasn’t committing a crime. A civil trial on that lawsuit is scheduled for October 2021, according to court records.
The civil trial in the Sneed lawsuit is scheduled for July.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 11:26 AM.
